Founder: Avin Rabheru
Founded: October 2013 (launched November 2013)
Website: https://housekeep.com/

Scaling a business to over £1m revenue, profitability and thousands of users are achievements that would take most businesses several years to accomplish, yet home cleaning start-up Housekeep has managed to hit these milestones just 18 months since launch.

The online platform enables users to book professional, insured home cleaners at an affordable rate; targeting time poor individuals living in London. Founder Avin Rabheru came up with the idea after deciding to “tackle a big, existing market with new technology” and identifying home cleaning services as the most “attractive option” – a wise choice considering the number of successful new players in the market.

A former angel investor with investments in several early stage businesses such as Crowdcube, Kabbee and Streetcar, Rabheru says it was always “going to be a natural step to take on the challenge of building [his] own [start-up]” and it’s clear that his entrepreneurial pursuit has paid off.

Since featuring in the Startups 100 2014, Housekeep has gone on to raise $1m funding in a deal led by the Pentland Group; named the ‘Best Angel-VC Deal of the Year’ at the 2014 UK Business Angels Awards, and achieved five-fold growth since December last year. Not bad for a start-up which was initially self-funded with £10,000.

Named as a People’s Champion finalist in the 2014 Startups Awards, despite operating in a competitive market, Housekeep’s growth shows no signs of abating…

Founders: James Brown and Fraser Doherty
Founded: May 2013 (launched September 2013)
Website: www.beer52.com

After developing a love for craft beer on a father son and road trip from Edinburgh to Faro, Startups Awards winner James Brown knew he had to help other beer lovers discover “these great beers that nobody knows about”.

With just 7p in the bank and government support for rent but plenty of vision and passion, Brown managed to convince investors to lend him the £20,000 he needed to launch Beer52. Working on a subscription model, the company sends customers handpicked and personally approved beers from more than 12,000 of the world’s microbreweries.

Since appearing in the Startups 100 2014 index, Beer52 has now reached 7,800 paying subscribers and an annual turnover of £1.2m in 2014 – with plans to reach 10,000 customers by summer and to nearly double turnover this year. The brand also ramped up exposure with a record Groupon deal that saw 5,000 beers sold in 40 minutes. The company has also now raised more than £200,000 from angel investors and the crowd.

Hoping to raise further investment, Brown has ambitious plans for the next 12 months, including the launch of a new community based app, the creation of four new full-time positions and a target of 20,000 members.

Founders: Edward Relf, Antony Pink and Nick Bransby-Williams
Founded: April 2014 (launched January 2015)
Website: www.laundrapp.com

It seems the digital world is threatening to disrupt every antiquated industry, and the century old laundry and dry cleaning industry wasn’t going to escape unscathed for long. Citing washing machines as its main competitor, Laundrapp is an on-demand laundry service that collects, cleans and delivers at your convenience.

Users download the app, select what service they require, and leave it up to the company to sort out, with real time ordering and driver logistics to ensure a slick and streamlined service. Partner facilities are pre-screened and a load will cost anything from £1.50 to £20 depending on garments and the type of service – collection and delivery is free.

The app launched in Birmingham and Edinburgh within weeks of its London release, and having already claimed to process tens of thousands of orders, hopes to launch in other cities soon. At just a few months old, Laundrapp is one of the youngest businesses on the list, but with £5.5m investment and explosive growth, this start-up already has already achieved more than others do in years.

With plans to become “one of London’s most successful start-ups”, it will be exciting to see how its growth and expansion plans evolve over the coming year – especially given co-founder Relf’s business credentials as the former marketing director of tech giant Mind Candy.

Founders: Petko Plachkov and Imran Gulamhuseinwala
Founded: May 2013
Website: www.commuterclub.co.uk

With the cost of an annual season ticket upwards of £2,000 from a London suburb, and less than 10% of commuters buying one last year, Petko Plachkov knew there had to be a better solution. Armed with an idea that he felt was too good to ignore, Plachkov interrupted his MBA in America to launch CommuterClub – a cost-saving solution allowing people to access the discounts of an annual season ticket, but pay for it in monthly installments.

The company claims to provide discounts of up to 30% compared to weekly or monthly tickets, and more than 5,000 hard pressed customers have already benefited from the service, which is aiming to achieve 10-20% penetration of the UK season ticket market in the next two-three years.

No surprise then that CommuterClub has seen rapid growth since launch, with an already impressive turnover of £2m in 2014, and projections to increase revenues to an epic £15m for 2015. Using the $2m in funding raised so far, the Startups Awards winning company will seek to capitalise on the introduction of smartcards in several UK cities, allowing it to extend its service to Birmingham and Manchester over the next 12 months. It also has ambitious plans to expand into new verticals and the US market.

Founders: Richard and Janet Garcia
Founded: August 2011 (launched May 2012)
Website: www.cookandgarcia.co.uk

Sandwich shops are far from uncommon on the high street, but the majority are chains which sell pretty standard, pre-packaged fare. New York-style deli Cook & Garcia is not just your average sandwich shop, and has the credentials to prove it – winning best independent sandwich bar in the UK at the British Sandwich Industry Awards two years in a row.

Opening on Richmond high street in 2012, the independent retailer sells a range of freshly made sandwiches, salads, soups, cakes and coffee using locally sourced ingredients. Taking on the global brands was never going to be easy, but with Janet’s sales and marketing experience and Richard’s years as a head chef, the husband-and-wife team have grown their business to achieve half a million turnover last year, netting them a decent profit.

Following private equity investment announced in last year’s Startups 100 listing, the brand has also just opened its second location in Monument City. With plans to open two more shops over the course of the next year and turnover set to double in 2015, Cook & Garcia could soon be coming to a location near you…

Founder: Suzanne Brock
Founded: June 2013
Website: www.nutriment.co

Pet food is a lucrative market – over 13 million UK households now have pets and recent statistics indicate 4% growth of the industry.

Capitalising on this opportunity is Surrey-based pet food firm with a twist Nutriment. A manufacturer of healthy, natural and completely raw food for dogs and cats, the business uses human-grade meat, vegetables and superfoods to create “metabolism-friendly” diets for pets while rejecting “cheap fillers and artificial nasties”. And it’s a concept which has proved popular with the nation’s pet owners; the company achieved turnover of £1.5m for 2014 and revenue figures are set to more than double in 2015. These figures are even more impressive when you take into account that all growth to date has been organic.

On Nutriment’s early success, founder Suzanne Brock credits the fact that the company differentiates itself from historically “dowdy and flouncy” raw pet food ranges and gives “momentum” to a sector which has remain unchanged for the last decade.

Brock also says that her team of 25 staff have given the company a “real people” feel and, having already renovated the business’ current premises, plans are now underway to purchase a second site and add new team members.

While the business already has three successful pet food ranges, Brock asserts that there is “certainly scope to do more” with a website re-launch and overseas export strategy both in the pipeline. The female entrepreneur is also determined to “take on the issue of pet obesity” – watch this space.

Founder: Sami McCabe
Founded: November 2012 (launched April 2013)
Website: http://clarity.pr/ 

London’s tech start-up scene has changed drastically over the last three years and Clarity PR has made it its mission to drive this change.

In 2012, a then 29 year-old Sami McCabe felt that the capital’s tech community was “one of the only bright spots in an otherwise bleak economy” but also believed that there weren’t enough PR services to meet the demands of fast-growth technology start-ups. Determined to fill this gap, Clarity PR was born and has now become the preferred PR agency for over 50 innovative tech and digital businesses.

Staffed by ex-journalists and former PR directors, the agency has expanded rapidly with offices in New York and Berlin alongside its London headquarters.

Having used just £50,000 of bank debt to get the business up and running, Clarity is a great case study for any entrepreneur looking to create a streamlined, effective business and for how to grow overseas – plans are currently underway for the company to launch in America’s tech nucleus; Silicon Valley.

With revenue figures expected to double to over £2m for 2015, McCabe is confident about the future prospects of Clarity PR and says that, having built a number of PR and marketing agencies over the last decade, Clarity is by far “the most exciting and fastest growing”. A statement that was supported recently when the business was named as the fastest-growing UK firm in PR Week’s Top 150 Agency Ranking.

Founders: Steve Machin and Gary Fisher
Founded: May 2012 (launched September 2014)

The global ticketing industry is huge, with the entertainment, travel and sports sectors requiring the sale of large numbers of tickets, and a viable online platform to do it through.

This adds up to a multimillion pound market, which London-based Accent Media is in an unrivalled position to exploit, thanks to its acquisition of the worldwide rights to the hugely valuable “.tickets” domain, after beating $3bn corporations at auction. After a change in the way internet names could be managed in 2012, Steve Machin and Gary Fisher recognised the potential to create a more trustworthy online space to buy tickets, and take on existing online ticketing giants.

Their company, Accent Media or (Dot Tickets), sells .tickets second level domain names with security and bundled ticketing services, and owns and operates premium names such as search.tickets – which are valued at between $1,000 and $100,000 a year. The company can also build its own ticketing businesses through partnerships with industry leaders and brands if domain names are too valuable to sell, and can retain a percentage stake of businesses that acquire its domains.

The business is still in its early stages, but after closing a multimillion funding round Accent is set to prove its lucrative concept to its investors, having already signed some major deals and with plans to sell around 3,000 tickets domains in its first year of trading. This is a business with serious potential, we can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Find out more about different domain name extensions in our guide to UK domain names

Founders: Brett Akker and Steve Folwell
Founded: June 2011 (launched August 2012)
Website: www.lovespace.co.uk

Describing itself as “cloud storage for your physical things” – decluttering your home instead of your hard drive – LOVESPACE is a by-the-box storage service that will collect and deliver anywhere in the UK.

Founder of Streetcar, Brett Akker, wanted to apply the convenience, value and customer service of his previous business to disrupt the UK storage industry in the same way. The company’s goal is to make storage accessible for everyone, with prices ranging from 78p per box for 12 months, to a maximum £9.95 for one box for one month – collection is free, but there is a small delivery charge to cover logistics.

Back in May last year, the 2014-listed Startups 100 company closed its funding round on Crowdcube having exceeded its target by 167%, with a total £1.55m raised. This fuelled its nationwide expansion, including the lease of a 20,000 square foot warehouse, equipment and fleet. The company has raised £4m to date, serving more than 7,000 customers and storing over 30,000 boxes.

The last year has seen several imitators try and break into the market, but LOVESPACE believes its competitive pricing, brand awareness and association with Mothercare and Oxfam will help it stay ahead of the curve. The storage firm will use the next year to explore the possibility of helping its customers share, gift, recycle and sell their items.

Founder: Daniel Gandesha
Founded: February 2013 (launched January 2015)
Website: www.propertypartner.co

Born out of his frustration with the massive upfront payments and hassles of property investment in desirable areas, founder of Property Partner Daniel Gandesha decided to create a solution by imitating the stock market, where individuals buy shares and receive dividends.

Property Partner takes its place amongst a host of other property disrupters in recent years, but differentiates itself with its unique stock market model and ability for investors to exit at any time they wish. Customers pay a one-off transaction fee of 2% on the purchase of their investment, and an industry standard 12.5% rental income for advertising, letting and managing the property.

Prior to launch, the start-up received substantial VC interest, eventually raising £5.2m in a round led by Index Ventures, and has now raised £6.65m in total to fuel its growth. One of the youngest businesses on the list, since January this year 1,000 individuals have invested between £50 and £50,000 in homes through the company’s platform, with around 20,000 sign ups in total.

Property Partner’s vision is to become the global stock exchange for residential property, with plans to expand internationally in the coming year. Judging by what Gandesha’s company has achieved in just a few months, this goal seems well within reach.